6.  The applicant was born in 1962 and lives in Helsinki.
7.  On 7 September 1995 the applicant was questioned by the police about suspected fraud. In autumn 1997 he was charged with several offences. The trial before the Helsinki District Court (käräjäoikeus, tingsrätten) involved 47 days of hearings. The applicant was represented by the same counsel throughout the District Court proceedings and at all subsequent court levels. The court received testimony from the defendants, the complainants and over 40 witnesses. On 29 May and 10 June 1998 the prosecution presented documentary evidence, including some documents drawn up by a Mr G., who was working off-shore for a bank and who, in answer to a letter rogatory sent by the National Bureau of Investigation (keskusrikospoliisi, centralkriminalpolisen) to the Guernsey authorities, had produced documents (including “notes for archives” pertaining to meetings on 3 and 22 June 1993 and charts) related to a plan to transfer funds.
8.  On 29 January 1999 the applicant was convicted of three counts of dishonesty as a debtor and four counts of aggravated tax fraud. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. The District Court judgment ran to 163 pages. In short and in so far as relevant, the court found on the basis of, inter alia, the testimonies of J.S., S., the applicant and his brother and the documentary material, including the documents obtained from the Guernsey authorities, that the applicant and his brother had discussed the planned transfers of assets with G. It also found that the documentary evidence pertaining to the off-shore companies and the transfer of moneys proved that the assets acquired from the sale of the “bank group I.” had been transferred via companies specified in G.'s charts to trusts, the beneficiaries of which the brothers had appointed. As both brothers had been present during the negotiations with G. on 3 June 1993 and the plan to transfer funds had been proved to have materialised, the court found that they had acted together in, inter alia, removing the funds from Finland.
9.  The public prosecutor appealed insofar as the charges had been dismissed and introduced alternative charges of aiding and abetting accounting offences. The applicant appealed against the conviction and requested an oral hearing. In particular, he requested that G., resident in Guernsey, be heard as a witness either in the Helsinki Court of Appeal (hovioikeus, hovrätten) or by executive assistance abroad if the court was not satisfied that the account of a witness S. was sufficient evidence as regards the value and content of the documents drawn up by G. In the Court of Appeal the applicant's case was open for review in respect of all counts. In the applicant's view, G.'s testimony was relevant to several counts.
10.  On 11 October 2000 the applicant renewed his request that the court hear evidence from G. In its decisions of 23 and 24 October 2000 the Court of Appeal refused, as being unnecessary, to receive oral evidence from G. It stated that it would provide further reasons in its judgment.
11.  On 31 October 2000 the court held a preparatory hearing. The applicant unsuccessfully renewed his submission that it was necessary to hear G. as a witness.
12.  The first hearing took place on 8 November 2000. The parties and altogether 22 witnesses gave oral evidence, of whom three were fresh witnesses. The hearing of 27 other proposed witnesses had been rejected.
13.  On 30 March 2001 the Court of Appeal pronounced judgment. In addition to the convictions imposed by the District Court, it convicted the applicant of four counts of dishonesty as a debtor and of five counts of aiding and abetting an accounting offence. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and ordered to be detained immediately. He also lost his military rank.
14.  As regarded the reasons for not hearing G. as a witness, the court held, inter alia, that:
“The Court of Appeal notes that no request to hear G. as a witness was made in the District Court although the documents relating to the plan to transfer moneys from the “bank group I.” had been presented at the hearings of 29 May and 10 June 1998 ... Also [the applicant] relied as written evidence on [some] documents drawn up by G. without requesting that G. be heard as a witness ...
The documents allegedly drawn up by G. have not been drawn up for the purposes of the pending proceedings. The import of the documents can be assessed without hearing him as a witness. The question whether it is necessary to hear him as a witness depends solely on whether such a hearing could produce relevant new information. In assessing this question the Court of Appeal takes into account the fact that in the District Court G. was not proposed as a witness and the fact that the parties have been provided with an opportunity to put forward all their opinions concerning the content and reliability of the documents during the trial.
The Court of Appeal notes that the documents in question have been requested by the public prosecutor and the National Bureau of Investigation by sending letters rogatory to the Guernsey authorities. The Court of Appeal does not have any reason to suspect that the documents were drawn up by someone other than G. ...
The documents clearly indicate that there has been a deliberate conspiracy to transfer the assets acquired from the sale of the “bank group I.” to companies established abroad and to invest the moneys. The transfer of assets has been conducted, as later explained in detail in chapter 6.2.2, by order of ... [the applicant and his co-accused brother]. The question of whether G. himself thought that he was involved only in legal investment activities is therefore not relevant.
The documents drawn up by G. are however relevant in assessing ... [the applicant's and his co-accused brother's] possible guilt of the offence of dishonesty as a debtor ... As becomes manifest in the reasons given in considering the charges, the Court of Appeal has however not decided the matter basing itself entirely on the documents in question. The court has instead assessed the value of the documents in an overall context, [in Finnish kokonaisyhteydessä] in which G. cannot have anything relevant to say.
The Court of Appeal has heard witness S., as requested ... about the events relating to the documents. The testimony of S., which in [the applicant's] opinion proves the content of the discussions with G., has thus been taken into account ... The Court of Appeal holds that the requirements of a fair trial do not require that G. be heard as a witness either.”
15.  The Court of Appeal judgment ran to 325 pages. In so far as relevant, the court principally endorsed the District Court's evaluation of the evidence.
16.  The applicant sought leave to appeal. On 5 December 2001 the Supreme Court (korkein oikeus, högsta domstolen) refused leave to appeal.